Article source
New York Times
Article date
Mon, Jul 3, 2017
The European Union and Japan have signaled that they plan to announce a broad agreement on trade on Thursday, a pointed challenge to President Trump, who is scheduled to attend a meeting of world leaders in Germany the next day.
The timing of the announcement — on the eve of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg, Germany — was a clear reaction to the United States’ protectionist stance the last time the G-20 met. During a meeting in March of cabinet-level officials in Baden-Baden, Germany, Steven Mnuchin, the American Treasury secretary, refused to endorse a statement in favor of free trade.